


Leverage, Season 3, Episode 1, The Jailhouse Job

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Leverage
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s03e01 The Jailhouse Job, Meta, Nonfiction, Season Premiere, Season/Series 03, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:53:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24529441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Leverage, Season 3, Episode 1, The Jailhouse Job

Open to a fake-out of Team Leverage busting Nate out of police custody.

It turns out Sophie and Nate are talking through a prison glass phone. The poly trio are hooked in, and as for the call being recorded, all guards here is a Spanish telenova.

I’m pretty sure there would be guards who speak Spanish. Or just know what Nate’s voice sounds like and be able to tell his voice isn’t on the recordings.

Nate makes it clear Team Leverage is to let him just serve his time.

I don’t get the feeling this is posturing and that he’s secretly expecting them to ignore him, but what does he honestly expect here? About a year ago, they essentially moved into his house when he was attacked and refused to let him get out of a job he’d come to love, and this was _before_ he explicitly called them his family and turned himself in to protect them.

Irritated, Sophie claims the poly trio know her real name, but he isn’t going to be told it until she forgives him. Also, they sent him a sausage containing an earbud.

Next up, the corrupt warden talks to the Italian about Nate, and it’s established this prison is a private one. Blegh.

On a different note: I’m not sure what this means, but Sophie’s birth name likely isn’t Sophie Devereaux. ‘Parker’ may or may not be part of Parker’s birth name. The Italian is referred to by this title rather than any name. It’s ambiguous if Tara’s name was an alias she adopted or not. Yet, the name of all male members of Team Leverage and most, if not all, male BGotW are given full names.

This isn’t a bad thing, but it is interesting.

The Italian shuts CW down when he tries to refuse to cooperate on giving her all of Nate’s files.

Later, Aldis Hodge’s brother, Edwin, is playing the CotW, Billy. He gives Nate a book, and then, Nate saves him from thugs when a guard refuses to help.

Billy explains the thugs think he killed one of their own, but he all he did was find the body. Nate asks why he isn’t in protective custody, and Billy doesn’t know. He doesn’t even know how he ended up in prison. His story is: He was an accountant, he went to visit his out-of-state girlfriend with some beers in the trunk of his car, and he was arrested for alcohol trafficking. He thought he’d get a fine, and instead, he got prison.

The worst thing is: If this wasn’t part of a plan to fill the prison, there’s a good chance he would have been killed. It’s not safe for black Americans to be stopped by the police, and this is something many, many people, both black and non-black, have known and been saying since way before the latest protests in America started happening.

On to something more lighthearted: Billy justifiably thinks Nate might be insane due to Nate sticking a sausage piece in his ear and asking Hardison to look up Billy. Hardison is still angry that Nate tricked them into helping Nate turn himself in to save them and that Nate rejected their plans to free him, but he does. Hearing Billy’s story checks out, Nate then stabs Billy.

Billy under-reacts in my opinion, but having never been stabbed, I can’t say for sure how I’d react. I’m not sure if Hardison realises this has happened or not. He’s just impressed Nate found a client in prison.

Next, pretending to be from England, Hardison is meeting CW. He plugs a flashdrive into CW’s computer, and given his job, CW isn’t particularly observant.

Meanwhile, in the infirmary, Billy is listening to the crazy man who stabbed him for reasons. Eliot is a doctor assigned to the infirmary. Though a bit intense, he’s nice to Billy, and then, a guard is shooed away to so that he can talk to Nate in private.

He makes it clear he isn’t happy about Nate conning the team, but when Nate asks, “Are we okay, Eliot?”, he focuses on the job.

This season, Eliot will keep things from the team, but I don’t think he ever directly lies. He hates the thought he might ever con the others, but he does understand why Nate did this. If it came down to sacrificing himself for any of them, he would, and if he had to do something to stop them from stopping him, he would.

However, he does claim Sophie told them her real name but that they’re under orders not to say it in front of Nate. Heh.

Over to Parker and Sophie, they break into a judge’s office, and it turns out he and several other judges are sending tons of people to the prison for non-violent offences.

Next, Sophie offers to help make CW a senator, and there’s a funny, cute flashback of Sophie and Hardison taking pictures and Photoshopping Parker in with the current senator. At one point, she takes off her dress, and Hardison looks away.

In the pilot, when I thought Hardison was sneaking a peek, I wasn’t thrilled, but I still liked his character. Now, I wouldn’t mind if he outright looked since Parker has made it clear she doesn’t care if people, especially the team, see her naked. However, I like the characterisation of him knowing this but still feeling compelled to look away.

Over in the prison, Eliot is sitting with Billy while talking to the others, and Billy is calm since Eliot is actually talking into a phone. They all figure out it was (a) guard(s) who killed the thug.

Eliot and Nate map out the prison, and Hardison and Parker make notes on the prison layout at headquarters. Then, they taunt Nate about supposedly knowing Sophie’s real name.

Next, Nate has set up a model of the prison with chess pieces and cards, and he talks to them at normal volume in the middle of a quad. Alright.

Outside, CW and a corrupt guard talk about how all the corrupt guards need to stop doing any corrupt things they’ve been doing so as to not jeopardise the senate seat for CW. It’s confirmed guards did kill the thug, and since Billy might be a problem, he needs to die.

Next, the corrupt guards conspire to do so. Ugh.

Meanwhile, in CW’s office, Hardison is there, and CW gets a call from the Italian. She tells him to check Nate’s visitor logs. CW leaves, and Hardison sits down at his computer.

Nate and Hardison talk, and realising the guards are about to come for Billy, Nate warns Eliot.

CW discovers his new campaign manager has visited Nate.

In the infirmary, Eliot dispatches the guards as Billy calmly dresses. Coming in, Nate comments on the sloppiness, and Eliot blames his new glasses.

Seriously, show? Seriously?

Fine, I’m not going down that road again.

Nate gets Billy out of the infirmary, the prison goes into lockdown mode, and CW tries to close the account Sophie set up for his campaign.

During all this Parker lures corrupt guards to the roof with a remote-controlled helicopter, and then, adorably menaces them with it.

At the bank, CW withdraws all the money from the account.

Back at the prison, Hardison’s new van is surrounded, and I’m surprised there wasn’t a rant about how this plan of Nate’s had better not lose him another van.

Thankfully, the guards don’t shoot for an even bigger reason: Inside Hardison and Parker are making as if they’re lovebirds who were about to get intimate.

Explaining they’re looking for an escapee, the guards ask for Hardison and his secretary to please leave, and they agree.

Inside, CW is freaking out to the corrupt guards. Bonanno appears, and CW has been framed for helping Nate escape. Billy, though, is still in the prison, and I hope he gets out and gets some compensation very soon. I think the corrupt guards are arrested, too, but I’m not sure.

At headquarters, Team Leverage has a plan to get Nate safely out of the country and them all rendezvous in Paris when the Italian comes down the stairs. How?

Eliot is ready to fight the armed men at the door, but Nate stops him.

In the otherwise empty bar, she gives Nate six months to bring down Damien Moreau. If he does, she’ll make sure he remains free. If he doesn’t, he goes to a Rome prison. It’s clear there’s supposed to be sexual tension between Nate and her, but it doesn’t work for me.

Upstairs, Nate tells Team Leverage about what she said.

Based on the acting, I don’t think Kane had been told about Eliot’s twist at this point.

“Right now, they have the leverage, so, what we have to do is we have to get it back,” Nate says.

Everyone agrees, the poly trio leaves, and Sophie isn’t happy about Nate’s drinking but is going to let him deal with his issues by himself. He’s largely focused on her name. She leaves.

Fin.


End file.
